spawn

/spawn

Purpose

Launch background tasks for parallel execution. Enables concurrent work on independent tasks with result aggregation.

---

Launch a background task or manage running tasks.

Spawn Operations

Launch Task

Start a new background task:

/spawn "[task description]"

Process:

1. Analyze task for parallelizability
2. Launch subagent with task
3. Return task ID for tracking
4. Continue main conversation

Output:

Spawned: Task #1
- Description: Research authentication patterns
- Status: Running
- Agent: researcher

Continue working. Use `/spawn --list` to check status.

List Tasks

Show running and completed tasks:

/spawn --list

Output:

## Active Tasks

| ID | Description | Status | Duration |
|----|-------------|--------|----------|
| #1 | Research auth patterns | Running | 2m |
| #2 | Analyze security | Complete | 5m |

## Completed Tasks (last hour)
| #2 | Analyze security | ✅ Complete | Results ready |

Collect Results

Gather results from completed tasks:

/spawn --collect

Output:

## Collected Results

### Task #1: Research auth patterns
**Status**: Complete
**Findings**:
- Pattern A: JWT with refresh tokens
- Pattern B: Session-based with Redis
- Recommendation: JWT for stateless API

### Task #2: Analyze security
**Status**: Complete
**Findings**:
- 2 high-priority issues found
- See detailed report below

Cancel Task

Stop a running task:

/spawn --cancel [id]

Task Types

Type	Best For	Agent Used
Research	Information gathering	researcher
Analysis	Code analysis	scout
Review	Code review	code-reviewer
Test	Test generation	tester
Scan	Security scanning	security-auditor

Flags

Flag	Description
--list	Show all tasks
--collect	Gather completed results
--cancel [id]	Cancel running task
--wait	Wait for all tasks to complete
--agent=[type]	Specify agent type
--priority=[high|normal]	Task priority

Usage Examples

/spawn "Research OAuth2 best practices"
/spawn "Analyze user service for performance issues"
/spawn "Review security of auth module" --agent=security-auditor
/spawn --list
/spawn --collect
/spawn --wait                    # Block until all complete

Arguments

$ARGUMENTS

If quoted text: spawn that task If flag: execute that operation

---

Parallel Workflow

Pattern: Research Phase

/spawn "Research authentication approaches"
/spawn "Analyze current auth implementation"
/spawn "Review competitor auth patterns"
# Continue other work...
/spawn --wait
/spawn --collect
# Synthesize findings

Pattern: Multi-File Review

/spawn "Review src/auth/ for security"
/spawn "Review src/api/ for performance"
/spawn "Review src/db/ for SQL injection"
/spawn --collect
# Address findings

Best Practices

1. Independent Tasks: Only spawn truly independent work
2. Clear Descriptions: Specific task descriptions get better results
3. Regular Collection: Don’t let results pile up
4. Resource Awareness: Don’t spawn too many concurrent tasks

Limitations

• Tasks cannot communicate with each other
• Results are collected, not streamed
• Heavy tasks may take time
• Some tasks benefit from sequential execution

Combines With

• Orchestration mode: Manages multiple spawned tasks
• /plan: Plan tasks, then spawn parallel execution
• /execute-plan: Orchestrated task execution

Gap Analysis Rule

Always identify gaps and suggest next steps to users. In case there is no gaps anymore, then AI should clearly state that there is no gap left.